As a leisure activity, golf is played and enjoyed by millions worldwide. Malaysia is popular as a golf destination. Tourism Malaysia has done a great job in promoting Malaysia for golf plus other activities like shopping, ecotourism, scuba diving or just enjoying the sunshine. It has great golf courses in amazing settings, from the highlands to beaches and from cityscape to rainforest. The cost per round is cheaper compared to what golfers pay in Europe, Japan or Korea. It estimates around 200,000 foreign golfers visit the golf courses every year and generate in the region of 300 million Ringgit of revenue to the country. The past staging of world class events like the CIMB Classic, which is a USPGA event, the Sime Darby LPGA, Maybank Malaysian Open and the Asian-Europe Cup attract thousands of golf followers from all over the world every year. The games are shown life on TV worldwide where millions of fans get to know Malaysia. Golf, not just a game but also a serious business. It encourages the development of golf tourism facilities including upgrading of golf courses to “tourists friendly” standards. Over the last 3 – 4 decades, a lot of investment has gone into construction of new golf courses including upgrading work. However, not much has gone into the development of golf itself amongst Malaysians.
Whilst Malaysia is proud to have 200 golf courses and driving ranges, there is still limited opportunity for juniors to participate in the game. Most of the clubs are private in nature and the management are reluctant to allow non-members or juniors to enjoy the facilities on their own. Children of members are allowed to use the facilities but must be accompanied by their parents. Over the last two decades, there were many propriety clubs emerged all over the country. Golf courses were built with housing projects to encourage house buying. However, regardless of their numbers, the charges for a round of golf are sometimes beyond the means of ordinary folks. This is something that Malaysian golf must address immediately, to make golf more popular and affordable.
Partly due to declining and ageing membership at most clubs, there is now effort being put in to encourage more junior memberships. This hopefully will eventually replace the ageing members. Together with falling number of rounds, most clubs are now investing in more junior development programs. It is common knowledge that the younger generation sees golf not only expensive and time consuming but difficult to play. Clubs are now beginning to put in more effort into making the whole experience of golf and golf club environment appealing to the younger generation. There is also evidence that the number of females taking up the game is increasing. In Malaysia, this sector was not tapped previously. MGA and Malaysian Ladies Golf Association (MALGA) have done their share of encouraging women to get engaged, learn the game and enjoy all that the game has to offer. As a result, Malaysia now has a pool of female golfers, although some of them have turned professional and participating in the LPGA tour. Malaysia has yet to see its lady golfers topping the leaderboard in a major competition.
The Ministry of Education is putting a lot of emphasis and effort into junior programs at schools and clubs. Many competitions are held for juniors in order to attract school going children to pick up the game and be competitive. Everyday clinics are held to make the game more popular. The Ministry of Education allocates some budget for golf at school. The public universities have golf as a co-curriculum. All these are efforts to increase the golfing population and making it popular amongst the young. These activities have been going on for many years now. However, parents are more concerned about their children’s academic performance rather than seeing them excel in golf. The perception is that there is not much future in golf, so most talented young golfers are pressured by their parents to quit golf when they go to college. This is a waste of young talents. Maybe these are some of the reasons why Malaysia has not produced top golfers. There should probably be more information on career prospects in the golf industry for school going children thus making them more aware of the potentials and opportunities. Likewise, parents of young golfers should equally be informed that there is a future in golf.
Malaysia has not done well in golf in the international arena compared to badminton or squash or hockey where Malaysia is highly rated. It has produced world known top ranked players in those sports. However, it has no world class professional or amateur golfer today, in fact not even in the top 100 ranked professional players. This is unusual considering Malaysia has all the facilities and modern infra-structure for the development of the game. There are also many golf academies giving golf lessons to young golfers all over the country. Some players have done well judging by their local performances, but they have not really migrated to the level of world class golfers. It is a desire of Malaysian golfers wanting to see a few local pros play top level golf around the world.
Unlike Thailand or South Korea, Malaysia does not have top golfers in the Asian or European tour. The Professional Golf Malaysia (PGM) has a regular tour in the country to develop locals and jointly with Asian Tour, the Asian Development Tour (ADT). The top ten professionals in the local PGM Tour do make a comfortable living from their local winnings, but they are not able to make the grade of the Asian or European Tours which are more lucrative but very competitive.
